Life in SEA is not all about magic. There are beautiful landscapes with precious flora and fauna too. Please enter if you love magic and the nature. If you are particularly looking for magic alone, look elsewhere please for you shall be disappointed. All materials are for entertainment purposes only.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Soul Retrieval & Nerve Calming (收魂與收驚)

Taoists believe that if a
person feel nervous and panic easily, then he or she has a weak soul. So a nerve
calming ritual needs to be performed constantly to pacify this person’s soul. On
the other hand, a soul retrieval ritual is performed to recall a lost soul.
These two rituals are fundamentally different altogether.

Nerve Calming Ritual (收驚)

The well being of a person’s
soul is affected by earth’s magnetic field, the movement of planets and the
location of fixed stars. Infants and children are the age group most easily
affected by these types of natural energies. Other factors affecting the nerve
of a child including is the behavior of family members and atmosphere in the
place where a child stays.

Basically there are two
types of Taoist nerve calming rituals:

·The Minor Ritual (小收)

oPrepare some joss sticks, paper, the person’s
clothing and a bowl of raw rice. To be effective, the person’s clothing must
cover the rice.

oPut all the stuffs onto the altar and chant for
about 3~10 minutes or even longer depending to the severity.

oAfter the chanting, remove the clothing and observe
the pattern on the surface of the rice bowl. The signs will give you a hint of
what happen to the person. If there is a pattern, repeat the ritual until no
patterns are observed.

oReturn the clothing and let the person wear for at
least one day and night.

·The Major Ritual (大收)

oThis is a more complex ritual where the ritual must
be performed in the person’s residence.

oThis ritual will take half a day to one day’s time.

oA special altar needs to be set up and a rice stalk
manikin set up in the center of the altar.

oIn addition to the above minor ritual, additional rituals
such as “offering to the demons and exorcism” will be performed.

Soul Retrieval (收魂)

There are many reasons that
a person can lost his or her soul:

·Overly excited or
sad

·Sudden shock such
as that of an accident

·Comma or drunk

·Overly slept

·Black magic doing

The ritual:

·If a person feels lethargic,
tired or even sleepy after sleeping for over 8 hours and there is no other
factors such as taking drug; or the person is unconscious for a long time, then
it is believed that this person has lost his or her soul:

oPerform the ritual at night with all the lights in
the house switched off.

oHold the person’s cloth by its collar and sweep
from his or her head to toe, then down to the bed, and then to the main door.

oTake a breath from the South-Eastern direction and
blow at the collar; then call the person’s name.

oBring the cloth back follow the original route and
cover on the person’s body collar down; facing his or her toe.

oIf the person fail to recover in 3 days, then as a
rule of thumb; the soul is lost forever.

Theoretically speaking, if
only nerve calming ritual is performed and followed by the soul retrieval
ritual; then the soul will not be at ease and hence this person’s soul will
need to be calmed very often. The precedence of the rituals must be strictly observed
otherwise whatever ritual one performs will render useless.